The present invention relates to a toaster and, more particularly, to a toaster for heating or toasting a food stuff to a selected shade, the toaster including a window displaying a visual indicator for indicating the user selected shade to which the food stuff is expected to be heated or toasted.
Toasters are generally well known for the purpose of heating or toasting food stuff such as a piece of bread, a bagel, a toaster pastry, a toaster sandwich, or the like. A toaster typically includes a generally box-like housing with one or more slot-like openings in the top surface for receiving a food stuff to be toasted or heated. The food stuff is typically supported on a movable carriage within the housing and a control arm or lever is provided for lowering and locking the carriage supporting the food stuff into a heating or toasting chamber within the housing and for energizing one or more heating elements for heating or toasting the food stuff within the heating chamber. Typically a control knob is provided on an outer surface of the toasting housing. The control knob may be actuated by a user for controlling the amount of time that the food stuff is heated or toasted to thereby control the degree of heating or toasting of the food stuff. For example, when the control knob is in the first, typically full counter-clockwise position, the food stuff is only heated or toasted for a relatively short period of time so that when the food stuff emerges from the toaster, it is toasted to only a light shade. Typically, as the control knob is rotated to the clockwise direction, the amount of time that the food stuff is heated or toasted increases accordingly as does the degree of darkness of the food stuff as it emerges from the toaster. When the heating or toasting time established by the control knob expires, the heating elements are de-energized and the carriage is released and moves upwardly under the bias of a spring to move the heated or toasted food stuff out of the opening in the top surface of the toaster for consumption.
The present invention comprises a toaster having a visual indicator for indicating to a user the expected shade of a food stuff, such as toast, emerging from the toaster when the control knob is set to a selected position. The visual indicator is in the form of a window with a visual shade scale movable with respect to the window by rotation of the control knob. The shade scale includes food stuff or toast shades ranging from a light shade to a dark shade. In this manner, when the control knob is set to a first end position to provide for a short time period to heat or toast the food stuff, the shade which appears in the window is a light shade. Correspondingly, when the control knob is set substantially clockwise to provide or a long period of heating or toasting of the food stuff; the shade which appears in the window is a dark shade. In this manner, a user is better able to adjust the control knob for controlling the time that a food stuff is heated or toasted to a desired visual shade which appears in the window.